One who documents history of a county, a state or a country, writes on that territory as a whole. However, here we descend to minuteness in detail as we find it, to pen biographical sketches of a particular people, our own forefathers who may have gone into the grave as a hero or as a forgotten man. A man may have been the best father or best farmer and worthy of note on his own deeds; that is of interest only to his descendants and successors.
For those who know what a family history is, no explanation is necessary. The intention is to put into print, as completely as possible, a written account of related families.
Preface
Have you ever tried to verify traditions and stories handed down in the family? Have you ever wondered why, in your early years, say about age four, one appears in photographs wearing velvet and lace, having a neat hairdo with bangs, then about age seven that same person is photographed in a school dress made of flour sack material? Or, in that awful year of 1932, were never photographed at all?
A nagging curiosity developed after being inoculated with the genealogical “bug” with many questions surfacing that needed to be verified. In this writing, if there seems to be too many experiences about my own past, dear family, I ask your indulgence and forgiveness. It is in the pursuit of proof that even more happenings come to the surface and shed some light on the total family.
Then, too, how can one write about family if incidents from the immediate family are not researched and verified? Family history is a hobby and an avocation; a need to know why certain things happened that tells of the determination of our forefathers. They were human beings, not just names put down. What did they do in their lifetime and why did they do it? Where were they in what year? They lived and breathed, had some terrible problems, yet had a soundness of principle to carry them through tough times.
All the things our ancestors did contributed to our development. By asking questions and learning more of our parents who were gone before we thought to ask questions, we can learn more about them. Hopefully, we’ll be wiser in knowing why we turned out the way we did, and how we may have changed things to our own liking in our growing years to make things better in a changing world.
As a result of the Great Depression, even though young at the time, we learned the value of a dollar and that we could not have everything for which we asked. We were raised and lived with that frugality and, without realizing it, based our lifestyles in that manner.
Large families were sometimes affected by the Depression in another way; children were sometimes separated from family and put into different homes, an orphanage or even in a different area. But not our family. Our Mom and Dad persevered and kept us all together, no matter what the hardship. For that we are grateful.
Special thanks is given to Amanda (Nolting) and to Alma (Sauerbrei) Harken and many, many others who were able to verify so many details as subjects were brought up, and also contributed other happenings in the family of which I was not aware.
May 1999
Edith Nolting Cooley
Introduction
A history is pre-supposed to be a local document, conveying information. This history is that of individuals and of their popular movements and settlements. It is of their affairs of civil, religious and military origin, if known, and is part of them as individuals and as families. A person may be born in a village or hamlet in Germany or in a small town in Vermont or Michigan, or in a small unlisted settlement in Iowa. A person is usually listed in a church history, most often in legal files, land records, census records, and can be listed in a personal history.
One who documents the history of a county, a state or a country, writes of that territory as a whole. However, here we descent do minuteness in detail as we find it, pen biographical sketches of a particular people, our own forefathers who may have gone into the grave as a hero or as a forgotten person. A man may have been the best father or the best farmer and worthy of note in his own deeds, that is of interest only to his descendants and successors.
For those who know what a family history is, no explanation is necessary. The intention is to put into print, as completely as possible, a written account of related families.
It has been exciting to be a family “detective.” Doing research on the different families has satisfied a lively curiosity about people of the same name, a need to find proof of those stories handed down through the years, and a desire to know more of the people, called ancestors, or to locations that were towns in the 1700 and 1800s, but now is a plowed field. Or is the site of a modern building in a big city. This has involved many hours of sitting in a courthouse thumbing through legal records to find a name or a location, or in a newspaper office looking for an obituary only to find it written in German. Or to have the clerk say that it is time to close. Often we hunted a tombstone in the cold of winter.
Doing research and recording is a huge and complex task, but the rewards are always worth it. I have met and been helped by so many nice people. It is a hope that everyone connected to the family has been found and recorded. Those not listed were certainly not omitted intentionally. Contact me and you will be included in the next edition.
I would like to express my appreciation to my husband and children for their cooperation in travelling with me to so many places, and for being so patient when I was writing, reading or searching and should have been doing other things.